


A Blink of Time

by AislingSiobhan



Series: Prompts and Gifts [17]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU IM3, Brief Flashback- kinda, M/M, Odin's A+ Parenting, Thor 2 Spoilers, Thor: The Dark World, Tumblr Prompt, loki is mortal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-28
Updated: 2013-11-28
Packaged: 2018-01-02 22:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AislingSiobhan/pseuds/AislingSiobhan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Tony/Loki] “All who live possess eternal life, and few would trade it for an immortal body, if they truly understood what it is to be alive.” Loki becomes mortal, and chooses to stay that way because of Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Blink of Time

**Author's Note:**

> The summary is a quote by/from Audrey Auden: Realms Unreel.

This is for Anonymous on the Frost-Iron Tumblr prompt list. Enjoy! 

 

**“A Blink in Time”**

**Disclaimer:** The Avengers, Tony, Loki, etc belong to Marvel, Stan Lee, et co. I make no money from this and own nothing, don’t sue.  
 **Summary:** [Tony/Loki] “All who live possess eternal life, and few would trade it for an immortal body, if they truly understood what it is to be alive.” (Audrey Auden: Realms Unreel). Loki becomes mortal, and chooses to stay that way because of Tony.  
 **Warnings:** Slash. Loki/Tony. Post-Avengers. Brief flashback. Thor 2 spoilers. Odin’s A+ parenting. AU IM3. Loki is mortal. Tumblr prompt.  
 **Rating:** R?  
 **A/N:** This turned out so much longer than expected. I also tried to do everything in the past tense and sort of confused myself with a flashback.  
 **Title** : Taken from this quote: “And when my days run out, I will have lived just a blink of time and the rest will be eternal joy,” by Abby Danielle Burlbaugh. 

_XXX_

**Words:** 2,101  
 **Chapter 1**  
Everyone says that you never know what you have until it’s gone. Sometimes it is true, and sometimes it’s just a crock of shit. Loki knew exactly what he had, and then Odin took it away from him: magic, immortality, power. Odin had turned him into a mortal, just one more of their ever growing species, useless and powerless and pathetic. And he was one of them now. It was to teach him humility, to punish him for claiming the throne _again_ while Asgard’s King was in the Odinsleep _again_ , ignorant of his protests that Thor abdicated of his own free will and Frigga was no longer there to hold the throne. So Loki did what was best for Asgard. 

“And for Loki,” Odin had tacked onto the end in a disappointed tone. 

“And for Loki,” the Trickster had agreed with a half-smile. 

He was no longer smiling once Odin gave his judgement. Having his magic bound had hurt, but not as much as being thrown through the Bifrost (much like Thor had been before), landing in a heap in the middle of Central Park. His limbs had ached; his head had pounded with every beat of his heart; moving too fast made him want to lie back on the floor and cry. But Loki had picked himself up, and Loki had found shelter for the night, and Loki had learnt to steal to eat. Until Loki met Anthony Stark again. 

Thor must have informed the Avengers of his punishment, because Stark didn’t attempt to fight him when they crossed paths. Loki had been dressed in the ragged remains of the clothes he had worn when Odin cast him out, with a pair of gloves he had pulled from a trash can that had holes where the tips of the fingers should go. He was eating a sandwich and sitting on a park bench and he was shivering. 

“I owe you a drink,” Tony had told him. He had been running, and there was another man with him, a dark skinned taller man who looked horrified as Tony had reached out and pulled Loki forcefully up off of the bench. “Think I’ll buy you a coffee instead.” 

Tony handed over the half-finished bottle of water he had been carrying and snatched the energy bar from Rhodey. "Here, you look like you need these." 

Loki had taken them, because he was hungry enough to ignore his pride. One didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, after all. He had followed them in silence towards the closest cafe that caught Tony's attention, and he ate everything he was given and then demanded more. His metabolism hadn't suffered like his strength had when Odin deprived him of his Godhood, and it was horrible to be so hungry all of the time, even after he had eaten, and there was only so much money people would throw at him if he sat on the streets. 

He had been lucky that Tony had found him so soon. Loki hadn't worried about needing a job, or a place to live, or a social security number, at least not for the month he was first on Earth. Tony had brought them all back to his Tower, and Loki had taken a room there, and metal servants delivered his meals for free for a while until he was trusted to leave his bedroom without supervision and cook for himself. He didn't need to work, because he didn't need the money; Tony had bought him clothes, insisting that he couldn't be seen in public with a guy dressed like an urchin. Loki almost took offence at that, but the handful of currency he was given had stilled his tongue. 

It had been two further months before Loki concerned himself with employment, and by that time Tony's servants (or a particular red haired one who did not respond well to such a title) had procured him the papers Loki needed to live and work legally in the country. But Tony had offered him a job at Stark Industries, as a consultant and inventor, head of their newest 'anti-magic' project, because even though Loki no longer had magic, he knew magic. Like Tony knew engineering, and was better at it than anything else he might have read up on but was better left to someone else, like Bruce and gamma radiation: you had to know something to become it, and Tony wanted magic, wanted to master that corner of the market before anyone else could, to own it, to be it, and he needed Loki to help him do that. 

It was alongside their working relationship that their personal relationship began. Loki hadn't wanted to know Tony, other than as a string of numbers on a plastic card that allowed him to purchase items he felt befitted him. But the more time they had spent together, the more Loki had begun to look forward to 'work'. Normal people moaned about having to get up for work on a Monday morning, but Loki spent all of Sunday night glued to Tony's side, indulging in some overtime, either in the lab or in the kitchen or on the couch when they were supposed to be watching movies. 

Their first kiss had been the result of Loki's jealousy. Jane Foster had been at Stark Industries, four months after his expulsion from Asgard, and Tony had kissed her spontaneously after she had solved an equation he had been frantically trying to work out for a week without sleep or proper sustenance. It had meant nothing and Jane had laughed it off, but the moment Tony solved his equation, before Jane had even left the room, Loki kissed him to 'thank your genius, Tony', while glaring sidelong at Jane. The other kisses that had followed were less about Loki staking his claim, and more about them both expressing their interest: so much so, that Jane had immediately fled the room. 

It had been over a year before Odin allowed Thor to pass along messages to Loki. Before, Thor had greeted him with a smile and a nod of his head, solemn but brotherly nonetheless, but had avoided all talk of Asgard. Thor had not even allowed himself to reminisce about their mother in case he let something slip. But a year after Tony had brought Loki home like a stray, Thor said, "father believes that your inventions have saved many mortal lives. He would call you back to Asgard, brother."

"And if would not go?" Loki had asked with a shrug of his shoulders. Long past were the days of him caring what Odin believed, and long ago had he relinquished any desire to live forever. He had Tony to live for now, and once, feeling melancholy, he had asked Tony about the possibility of him being given his Godhood back and what Tony would want to do. 

"Do?" He had asked, with an arm slung over Loki's shoulders. 

Loki had curled into the embrace, seeking the comforting presence of his lover. "Would you seek immortality with me, live with me forever in Asgard or Midgard or wherever you desire?" Tony had raised his right brow, lips curving in amusement. "You could face the Trials. I'm sure Thor will put his woman through them at some point. Or I could steal you one of Idunn’s apples, if you would rather cause some trouble with me?" 

"You don't need to live forever, Loki," Tony had told him softly, with a fond smile and a wink, "not if you know how to truly live while it lasts." Loki had frowned, bitten his bottom lip and glanced away anxiously. He hadn't wanted Tony to die of old age, or to be killed by any of the numerous supervillains that plagued New York, but he also didn't want to be mortal until his own death. He had pushed the issue aside, consoling himself with the knowledge that Odin was never going to find him worthy anyway, so there was nothing to fret about. 

"Then you must teach me how to live before I die, Anthony," Loki had joked, eyes bright with unshed tears. 

"My pleasure, gorgeous." Tony had whispered just before he kissed him. 

And he had lived, and he had danced and sang and drank, and loved. He was happy with Tony, and Loki wasn't ready or willing to give that up yet. 

"Bring me to him then, if you must, Thor," he demanded with a put-upon huff. He shook off thoughts of the past, focused himself on the brother who stood before him then, and then forced back those memories too, to fix his narrowed, green eyes on the Allfather. 

"Are you proud of me now, Allfather?" Loki mocked eyes bright and lips smiling. His hands were unbound this time, unlike the last two times he had spoken to the man who had raised him (not including the time he disguised himself as a guard and reported his own 'death'). "Have I done with my life all that you had wished me to?"

"You have repented," Odin replied, keeping his hands clenched around the arms of his throne so that he would not reach out and strangle his most difficult son. "Your contributions to the mortals’ science have saved many lives." 

"Not to sound ungrateful, but get to the point."

Odin sighed, and swallowed heavily. "You are worthy of your title," he said, beginning to reverse the spell that had cast Loki out, "you are worthy of your name, Odinson. I grant you-"

"Nothing," Loki said, interrupting him. "For I will accept nothing of you. I have what I want, Allfather, and it is through your most supreme wisdom and understanding that I have discovered it. So I thank you most humbly," Loki spoke with such insincerity that one of the guards standing by the throne-room doors winced, "but now I will take my leave. I must return _home_." 

"You would remain a mortal? You would die a mortal, Loki, in ten, twenty, thirty years’ time? Why would you not reclaim your Godhood, you who always thought yourself so much better than mere mortals of Midgard?"

"I understand, now, what it truly takes to be alive, and now that I have him I cannot continue to live without him." 

"A lover?" Odin almost laughed, and Loki scowled at his amusement. The hypocrisy of it made the Trickster ill; for Odin was the one who nearly destroyed Asgard with war when his wife was killed, but she was Vanir, not mortal and no matter how much Odin claimed to love them, they would never be regarded as being on the same level as the inhabitants of the higher realms. 

"Could she not join you here?"

Loki snorted. As much as he would wish it so, Tony was not meant for long life. He was the live fast, die young type, despite the wonders he might achieve if he had another five thousand years to achieve them in. 

"He would drive himself mad, living forever, and he would mourn his friends horribly when they pass." 

The first thing Tony would try and invent if he passed the Trials, Loki knew, would be immortality for the other Avengers, and he would fail, and that failure would kill him a little more every day. Loki would not do that to him, could not bear his grief. And what would Loki lose by staying human? A few thousand more years of nothingness and loneliness, without friends or a lover, without his mother to console him, without a brother because thirteen months and the siege of Asgard had not been enough to repair his relationship to Thor. He had survived this long without his strength, or his magic, because he had his mind and that was what made him Loki above all else. He thought he was Loki, so he was Loki, as Tony had once drunkenly misquoted at him. 

"I have lived a good year," Loki told him smugly, knowing that he hadn't been punished at all, "and I will live many more by his side." And because he couldn't keep lying to himself, not when this was the last time he might ever speak to the man, ever see him, ever have hope of receiving love or validation from him, Loki said, "Goodbye, father."

"Be happy," Odin said softly, reaching one hand out towards the man who had already turned away from him, "my son." 

"I will," Loki promised without looking back, but he smiled the whole walk back to the Bifrost. 

**The End**

:)


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